Page 13 of Step Brother Bear

“Yeah, I never pretend I didn’t.”

“Why is it okay for you and not for me?”

He joins me on the counter, crawling closer until our knees touch. “Because I admit it, and I never shacked up with any of them and pretended it could last.” He taps the neck of his beer against mine and takes another long sip.

“What about Chrishell?” I smile as I take a sip.

“What about her?”

“Did you like her because she was dumb?”

“Do you think your best friend is dumb?”

“She’s not my best friend anymore.”

“Did you think she was dumb when she was your best friend?”

I look above me, unraveling the invisible memories of our friendship. “I mean, I was smarter than her.”

Derek laughs. “You’re such a cocky bitch.”

“Hey, I am not a bitch!”

He scoffs. “Yes, you are. That’s like your whole thing.”

“I don’t have a whole thing.”

“Yes, you do. Everyone knows it too. You’ve always had this aloof, I know I’m hot, and no one can touch me, thing about you.”

My cheeks heat. “That’s not true.”

“Believe me, I never heard the end of it.”

“People said that about me to you?”

He scoffs. “Yeah, all the fucking time.”

“What would you say?”

“Nothing.”

One good story usually leads to another.

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“Oh.”

“I’d just choke them out.”

I laugh. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“Isabella, you know I would.” He smiles, revealing his straight pearly whites. It surprises me that after all his years of causing trouble, he’s been able to keep them intact.

I return my attention to the almost empty container of peanut butter. Damn, maybe I do eat a lot of this stuff. I push it back to him, hopeful he’ll save me from the remainder. “So was that why you hooked up with Chrishell then? Because she was hot and dumb?”

He laughs. “No.”

“Why then?”